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Dir. Francis Ford Coppola
USA
Rumble Fish manages to tackle a great deal in only ninety minutes. One
of its director’s most well know film, The
Godfather: Part II (1974), is
over three hours long but he is able to make a film just as rich that is half
the length or more. Many films procrastinate, but Rumble Fish both feels long in scope yet physically is brisk. This befits
a film of adolescence and how short it is even if it feels long for the youths.
A young man Rusty James (Matt Dillon)
idolises his older brother, the quiet voiced Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke), but when he returns he
is shown to be unable to, without “the smarts” of him and within a period where
he is completely adrift. The monochrome clouds move rapidly above him and
others in fluid rich swathes and time peters, Tom Waits behind the counter of his diner expressing how none of
the youths realise they have little time, shot from the angled perspective of
the wall clock looking down on him too. Days go on but for Rusty James he is
nearing a drastic change in his life. His relationship with Patty (Diane Lane), youthful exuberance, who he
obsesses over in classes rather than pay attention to the lessons, is
precarious. His life is going nowhere and his father (Dennis Hopper) is alone and stuck in an alcoholic dependency. The
Motorcycle Boy, and his younger brother’s view of him, is not who he thought he
was despite the graffiti of “The Motorcycle Boy Reigns” on street corners.
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| From http://perfectionofperplexion.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/rumble-fish-1983-hdtv-720p-english-and-russian-mkv_200502.jpg |
Never does Rumble Fish become pretentious despite the options that could have lead
it there. It is too simple and clear in its thoughts to confuse them. It is
cool in rich black-and-white with echoing post-synch sound. It has Dillon, Rourke, Waits, Lane, Lawrence Fishburne, Nicolas
Cage and Chris Penn onscreen. Even
an adolescent Sofia Coppola in a
small role as Patty’s little sister, making the lambasting of her performance,
older, in The Godfather: Part III (1990) overdoing it even if it was
justified. But beneath the timeless veneer, motorcycle jacketed rebels against
arcade machines, it’s about the restlessness of youth. Aimless, not connected
to adult life. The violence, Rusty James continually battered and experiencing
an out-of-body experience in one such incident, as much the pent-up desires of
the males asserting themselves as the desire for sex with girls their age. The fighting
fish of the title, bright colours, are trapped and feel the need to assault even
their own mirror images. Coppola is
controlled, nuanced in every moment angled and lit in an interesting way, but
he is as much obsessed with his characters meaning a lot for himself and the
viewers. His characters are trapped in situations against their own wills and
have to make their way out of it, drastically changing by the end. Gene Hackman against his paranoia in The Conversation (1974). Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now (1979). Michael Corleone and his divine punishment
by the end of The Godfather trilogy.
Mina Murray and Dracula in Bram Stoker’s
Dracula (1992). The protagonists of Tetro
(2009) and Tim Roth, against his superhuman
burden, in Youth Without Youth (2007).
Like them all, Rusty James is not in control of what happens to him, barring
the final decisions, having to decide after it’s too late what to do next. The
music, by Stewart Copeland, is
precise as clockwork and as varying and changing as a heartbeat. It is cool but
weaves with sincerity. Filtered through dialogue by S.E. Hinton, author of the original source novel, Rumble Fish is cool but never aloof, as
varying as the drama changes even in its style. Its end is at the ocean and the
route to it is justified and felt. In only ninety minutes you are there for characters
like Rusty James and the Motorcycle Boy and feel everything that happens. Even
if I am distant from their lifestyles and older than them, a young man like
myself cannot help but feel, through this stylish film, how my youth is fresh
and running quickly on the clock too.
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